Cathy's Favorite Chicken Noodle Soup

1 lb chicken tenderloins
Salt and Pepper
1/2 - 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, diced
1-2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 heaping teaspoon fines herbes
1/2 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon thyme
32 ounce carton chicken stock
1 can Campbell's cream of chicken soup
Water (6-8 cups, approximately)
10 ounce bag frozen peas
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
16 ounce pkg fine egg noodles

Season the chicken tenderloins with salt and pepper.  Heat the oil and butter in a large stockpot until the butter is melted and starting to bubble a little.  Add the chicken and cook over medium-high heat until they begin to brown, then turn them and cook another 3 or 4 minutes.  Add the onion, celery and bell pepper and cook 2 or 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the fines herbes, sage, thyme and chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Cook until chicken is completely cooked and tender about 10 minutes.  Stir in the cream of chicken soup, water, peas, parsley and lemon juice.  Turn heat up to high and bring to a full rolling boil.  Stir in the egg noodles and cook 3 minutes (or until done).

Serve at once.

Excellent soup if I do say so myself!  And perfect for dinner when you've got a cold!

Note: I usually remove the cooked chicken before adding the cream of chicken and water.  I chop up 2 or 3 pieces into small chunks and add them back into the soup and then save the rest of the chicken to make chicken salad for lunch the next day!  Two meals for the price of one.

Meringue Mushrooms

Meringue Mushrooms

2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
Chocolate or Mocha Buttercream
cocoa powder

Heat oven to 200^.  Put a few drops of oil on a baking sheet and wipe it over the whole sheet with a paper towel.  Cover with sheet of waxed paper or parchment paper.  Wipe a very thin film of oil over the paper.  In small, deep bowl, preferably stainless steel, beat egg whites until soft peaks form when beater is lifted.  Add 2 tsp sugar and whip 2-3 minutes longer, till mixture is stiff and glossy.  Sprinkle remaining sugar over egg whites and gently fold it in with rubber spatula. Fit a large piping bag with a plain tube (#5 or #6).  Place the meringue in the bag and pipe 24 small round meringues for the mushroom 'caps' onto the pan.  Pipe stems separately by squeezing meringue into an upright 'stem'. Bake in center of oven about 45 minutes or until crisp, dry and a very pale coffee-ice cream color.  Remove from oven to wire racks to cool.  

To make the mushrooms, rotate point of small sharp knife in underside of each 'cap' to make a small hole.  Spread underside with a bit of frosting and insert point of stem into cap. Sprinkle mushrooms lightly with cocoa.  Tightly covered these will store several days (if you can keep Jennifer away from them!) in the refrigerator.  

I use these to decorate the Yule Log cake.  They need to be prepared on a dry, non-humid day or they'll be sticky instead of crisp.  I have to make a separate batch of plain meringues for Jen because she absolutely loves these things!